“There was uproar amongst the chattering classes in the middle of August as the Department of Health slipped out a very watered down version of the Childhood Obesity Strategy. What had been hailed as one of the most important pieces of legislation by the previous Prime Minister Mr Cameron had effectively been sidelined by the new incumbent Mrs May. But what’s the issue? Why should it take a Government and legislation to bring the current epidemic of childhood obesity under control? Why can’t people just eat properly and exercise enough to work off the calories they have consumed? The first answer that nearly always tops the pile is ‘it’s too expensive to eat healthily’. Poppycock. It’s cheaper to buy fresh food and prepare it yourself than pay for the privilege of someone else preparing it and half cooking it. So if it’s not price what is it? Laziness, lack of awareness, lack of time, a lack of understanding what calories are being consumed and how much is being burnt off? Or a combination of any or all of these? …

“Using the ‘steps needed’ calculation, a daily diet of breakfast cereals, ready made lasagne for lunch, sandwich for tea, a few treats through the day and a can of coke and the number of steps to work it off is over 11,000. Quite a task if the child is confined to the house. The answer to this predicament is simple. Achieving it isn’t. There has to be a wholesale change in how and what we feed our children combined with a concerted effort to get them to be more active. Getting our children involved with preparing fresh food at home and becoming more active would be a great place to start. It really doesn’t matter whether food is organic, nonorganic, in season or travels half way around the world before arriving on their plates. They are refinements for the future. What is important now is that they eat something better than a ‘ping’ meal smothered in sauce laden with preservatives and calories. “

I think the reason I delay writing a new blog is because there are so many good ones to read. Occasionally like today, I come across somebody who concisely and entertainingly sums up many of the things I want to say.

Luckily I’m happy to delegate; rather than reinventing the wheel here it is:

When someone with Type 1 diabetes first comes to attention, their blood sugar is high because they can’t make enough insulin. They invariably have lost weight. They may be eating 5,000 calories a day, and they’re still losing weight. You can’t gain weight without insulin. The opposite is also true. If you give someone with diabetes too much insulin, they will inevitably gain weight. Insulin programs the body to store calories, and most of those calories get stored in the fat cells. If you’ve got too much insulin, you’re going to store too many calories. This has been very well established scientifically.”

“Q.

How do you get your obese patients to lower their insulin?

A.

The quickest way to lower insulin is to cut back on processed carbohydrates and to get the right balance of protein and fat in your diet. A high fat diet is really the fastest way to shift metabolism. It lowers insulin, calms fat cells down and gets people out of the cycle of hunger, craving and overeating.”

Unlike drugs, nutrients do not have rapid effects. No quick fix. The business of nutrition is to build a better body. That has to wait on nature to turn over body cells. A blood cell lasts 60-120 days. In 3-4 months your whole blood supply is completely replaced. In 6 months almost all the proteins in your body die and are replaced, even the DNA in your genes. In a year, all your bones and even the enamel of your teeth is replaced, constructed entirely out of the nutrients you eat.

This time course is well illustrated by the course of deficiency diseases. If I remove all the vitamin C from your diet, within 4 weeks blood vitamin C will drop to zero. But, you will see no symptoms of disease at 4 weeks. You have to wait until enough of the healthy cells have been replaced by unhealthy cells. It is another 12 weeks before the symptoms of scurvy start to ravage your body.

So when you implement an optimum nutrition program, don’t expect rapid results. In one of our studies at the Colgan Institute, runners were supplemented to try to improve their haemoglobin, hematocrit, and red blood cell count. But, after one month of supplementation, there was no improvement at all. After 6 months, however, all three indices were significantly increased. (Dr Michael Colgan)

Before pregnancy is the time to start planning your baby’s health. A diet rich in folates is very important which is why many foods are now fortified and GPs recommend taking folic acid. Bio-available folates in a natural form are superior however and include many other phyto-nutrients also.

It’s not hard to get folates which our bodies are able to process and absorb. A diet rich in leafy green veg will give you all that’s necessary and is a better source of calcium than dairy products. ‘Vitamins’ are just isolated chemicals which scientists got around to recording before the government at the time decided they needed to be spending their time researching bomb-making instead. Recommended levels are those below which certain illnesses occur; they’re not the levels needed for optimal health. It’s the equivalent of saying an unbroken leg = Olympic fitness. An apple has over 10,000 ingredients. Our cells utilise the various nutrients in a myriad of ways.

I think the grumpy are much-maligned. Grinning inanely or seemingly having a constantly good time, is not necessarily a marker of true happiness or contentedness. These latter states of being are more indicative of low stress levels and an Epicurean ideal of ataraxia. Being only happy could even be a type of depression; a fixed state and denying the experience of variable and fluctuating emotions. Or of mania.

What do you think? Should we pursue happiness? Is that realistic – or does questioning this appear to be a negative thought to you?

Happiness is Pleasure; all things are to be done for the sake of the pleasant feelings associated with them

False beliefs produce unnecessary pain; among them, that the gods will punish us and that death is something to be feared

There are necessary and unnecessary desires. Necessary desires, like desiring to be free from bodily pain, help in producing happiness, whereas unnecessary desires, like desiring a bigger car or a more luxurious meal, typically produce unhappiness

The aim is not the positive pursuit of pleasure but rather the absence of pain, a neutral state he calls “ataraxia,” which is freedom from all worry, often translated simply as “inner tranquility.”

This state of ataraxia can be achieved through philosophical contemplation rather than through pursuit of crass physical pleasures

Happiness is not a private affair: it can be more readily achieved in a society where like-minded individuals band together to help inspire one another’s pursuit of happiness

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. George Eliot

I’ve been writing this blog in my head for some time and could probably write an essay on each of the types of hunger I have thought of so far. But that stops me publishing this synopsis, and everybody has their own subjective stomach that feels hunger-emotion in its own particular way.

If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple you may be:

bored

craving a particular substance of food group

or addicted to one

comfort eating

it’s your lunch ‘time’

emotionally hungry – what do mealtimes mean to you; how did they feature in your family story?

your blood-sugar levels have dropped

your stomach is not full. That’s ok – it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to eat.

satiety – the gut hormone leptin is produced when the bolus of food reaches the small intestine. This can be some time after eating.

thirsty – when we drink anything except water we confuse our digestive system and many people try to satisfy thirst with tea, coffee or sugary drinks. This reaction may be pre-verbal; programmed by artificial/formula feeding instead of breastfeeding.